A call from Montreal artists to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid…

Today, a broad spectrum of Montreal artists are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and supporting the growing international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state. Last winter, the Israeli state launched a violent military assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 1400 Palestinians dead, including over 300 children. Despite the official end of military operations, the blockade continues to this day, with devastating consequences for Gaza’s residents.

Over 60 years from the beginning of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from historic Palestine through Israel’s creation, Montreal artists are united in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.

Montreal artists are now joining this international campaign to concretely protest the Israeli state’s ongoing denial of the inalienable rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties, as stipulated in and protected by international law, as well as Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including Jerusalem) and Gaza, which also constitutes a violation of international law and multiple United Nations resolutions.

Palestinian citizens face an entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation, resembling the defeated apartheid system in South Africa. A matrix of Israeli-only roads, electrified fences, and over 500 military checkpoints and roadblocks erase freedom of movement for Palestinians. Israel’s apartheid wall, which was condemned by the International Court of Justice in 2004, cuts through Palestinian lands, further annexing Palestinian territory and surrounding Palestinian communities with electrified barbed wire fences and a concrete barrier soaring eight meters high.

Gaza remains under siege. Israel continues to impose collective punishment on the 1.5 million Palestinians of Gaza, who still face chronic shortages of electricity, fuel, food and basic necessities as the campaign of military violence executed by the apartheid state of Israel endures. UN officials recently observed that the “situation has deteriorated into a full-fledged emergency because of the cut-off of vital supplies for Palestinians.” As a result of Israeli actions, Gaza has become a giant prison.

The global movement against Israeli apartheid, supported by a large majority of Palestinian civil society, is not targeted at individual Israelis but at Israeli institutions that are complicit in maintaining the multi-tiered Israeli system of oppression against the Palestinian people.

In fact, the Palestinian civil society BDS call, launched by over 170 Palestinian organisations in 2005, explicitly appeals to conscientious Israelis, urging them to support international efforts to bring about Israel’s compliance with international law and fundamental human rights, essential elements for a justice-based peace in the region. The present appeal is also rooted in an active engagement with many progressive Israeli artists and activists who are working on a daily basis for peace and justice while supporting the growing global movement in opposition to Israeli apartheid.

During the first and second intifadas, Israel invaded, ransacked, and even closed down cinemas, theatres and cultural centers in the occupied territories. These deliberate attempts to stifle the Palestinian cultural voice have failed and will continue to fail. Around the world, the call for BDS is growing and is strongly rooted in the historic international solidarity movement against apartheid in South Africa.

In keeping with Nelson Mandela’s declaration that “our freedom [in South Africa] is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” we believe that international solidarity is critical to liberating Palestinians from Israeli colonialism and apartheid. This struggle will continue until all Palestinians are granted their basic human rights, including the right of return for all Palestinian refugees living in the Diaspora.

Today, a diverse array of artists in Montreal, from filmmakers, musicians and dancers to poets, authors and painters, are joining the international movement against Israeli apartheid. On the streets, in concert halls, in words and in song, we commit to fighting against apartheid and call upon all artists and cultural producers across the country and around the world to adopt a similar position in this global struggle.

to add your support to this letter or to present questions or suggestions please write to info(at)tadamon.ca

The boycott of Israel must be made into a precise programme to distinguish it from a boycott of Jewish people per se. There must also be a distinction made between a boycott of Israel rather than Israelis. Furthermore the Arabic word Yehudi should not be used to refer to Israel or Zionists since it is the name of the entire Jewish People who are in our majority not affiliated to Israel.

From a T.O Artist/Teacher: Thank you Montreal artists for this awesome declaration against Israeli Aparthied…there are thousands of other Canadian artists ready to sign this declaration if it goes national. In peace~davis

Comment by Davis Mirza — March 1st, 2010 @ 3:39 AM

Vanessa Redgrave says referring to Israel as an apartheid regime is counterproductive to peace and to justice for the Palestinian people.

“If attitudes are hardened on both sides, if those who are fighting within their own communities for peace are insulted, where then is the hope? The point finally is not to grandstand but to inch toward a two-state solution and a world in which both nations can exist, perhaps not lovingly, but at least in peace,” said Redgrave in an October 2009 letter to the New York Review of Books.

with all the respect for the Palestinian struggle for interdependency and for art, the real responsible for the cinema closure in the Gaza strip is Hamas and not Israel. 9 operating cinemas in Gaza strip were closed after a violent demonstration of Hamas in 1995 and never reopened again, even after the Israeli withdrawal. in your post and and on your website, you don’t even mention that in the Gaza strip there is a radical Islamic regime that doesn’t allow artistic manifestations (like in Afghanistan during the taliban). except for a martyr movies as “Imad Akal” (if you consider it art…). it’s ok to blame Israel for many things but i think you should also self-criticize what is happening inside the Palestinian society. i know that my comment doesn’t support your cause 100% and might not publish it, but sometime the reality is more complex then Israel – bad, Palastinians – good.

Comment by Assaf Ruder — March 6th, 2010 @ 6:48 AM

Are you also against Palestinian murderous terror? Against their religious zealousness? Their lack of tolerance towards Christian Arab minority? Their gender based discrimination? their historical lies?

Do you support, like them, the total destruction of the state of Israel? their constant bombardment of Israeli cities?

Israel is no saint, but nor are the Palestinians. Your ignorance does not bring peace, but make it more difficult to achieve it.

Comment by Aviv — March 6th, 2010 @ 10:27 AM

funny cause in gaza there is no culture at all !!
israel dont control of gaza the hamas is !
the islam is very democracy….go back to read and learn fools.

Comment by niv — March 6th, 2010 @ 12:57 PM

I think it’s a wonderful thing that all you people sign and support a pettition without really knowing the facts… I think I will start a pettition of my own – “A call from worldwide artists to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Canadian apartheid of the martians….”
About as logical and true as yours.
I can’t believe how ignorant people can be. Stop feeding off of the one-sided media reports! if either one of you spent only a couple of weeks in israel, you would have understand that there is no apartheid, nor anything that even resambles it. It’s funny how you people support those who don’t care for human rights, women rights, gay rights, or even free speech, and go against the only country in the middle-east that does! We have arab members of the parlament, and the arab people in israel have more rights than every other arab in any other muslim country! I guess it’s easier to put your name down on a stupid pettition then actually trying to understand and know the situation…

Comment by Nagash — March 6th, 2010 @ 1:11 PM

there is Culture in Afghanistan ,Sudan the same here in gaza !!
why are you publish so much lies ? what do you know about the palastinian history at all ?
in israel there is 20 % of arab muslim Citizens !!!
israel is the only Democratic country in the middel east !!!
what do you know about the claims of the Palestinian ?
do you heard the name jordan kingdom and Saudi Arabia and how they established ?
Excuse me you dont know s….. you part of Islamic Radical Campaign !!!
i wonder why we dont hear your voices over other Injustices all over the world …
if only one of you will learn the real facts open books and try the find the truth ill be glad/ mean while you supporting terrorist groups not nation or tribe.

Comment by niv — March 6th, 2010 @ 1:24 PM

your all so one sided about things you dont really know.it’s amazing
keep watching the paliwood show…. have a nice day
i’m here and you wont change that.
adam from israel

Comment by adam — March 6th, 2010 @ 2:09 PM

Apartheid Week – Hypocrisy at its Best

By: JONATHAN DAHOAH HALEVI
Published: March 2nd 2010

“…The Canadian artists blame Israel for intentionally harassing and bringing disaster to the peaceful Palestinian people during more than 60 years and fail to mention the word “terrorism” even once.

Their account of the historical events as they appear in the statement is to say the least distorted. One paragraph within the long list of “crimes” accuses Israel of deliberately oppressing the Palestinian cultural activity as follows:

“During the first and second intifadas, Israel invaded, ransacked, and even closed down cinemas, theatres and cultural centers in the occupied territories. These deliberate attempts to stifle the Palestinian cultural voice have failed and will continue to fail.” [1]

The five hundred Canadian artists virtually portray Israel as a pinnacle of human evil and their basic premise assumes, as it may be understood, that without Israeli “crimes,” the pluralist and liberal Palestinian culture in the Gaza Strip would be flourishing with cinemas, theatres and cultural centres.

This thesis has one little weakness. Not a single cinema house exists in the Gaza Strip and Hamas – NOT Israel – is responsible for “stifling the Palestinian cultural voice”. Saud Abu Ramadan, a Palestinian reporter working for the Chinese newswire Xinhua, published an article on July 26, 2009 reviewing the history of cinemas in the Gaza Strip while interviewing 57-year old Adnan Abu Beid, who used to run the most famous and biggest movie house in downtown Gaza city called al-Nasser, and today makes his living as a greengrocer. [2]

Abu Ramadan notes that “after Israel signed Oslo accords with the Palestinians, when the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was established after the Israeli army withdrew from Gaza city, al-Nasser movie house was reopened for a few months, but later it was burned and destroyed by angry Islamic Hamas demonstrators in 1995.” Abu Beid told Xinhua that after al-Nasser movie house was burned and destroyed, “I hid my film archives and decided to become a vegetable vendor.” He added that his archives “are the only that remained after all the movie houses had either shut down, or been destroyed by Hamas activists during demonstrations in Gaza city in 1995.”

By 1994, after the PNA was established, there were nine movie houses in the Gaza Strip, including al-Nasser, al-Samer, al-Jalaa’ and Amer in Gaza City, al-Khadra and al-Hamra in the city of Khan Younis and three other movie houses in the town of Rafah. However, Abu Beid said, “Nowadays, there is ignorance of movie houses and the contribution they could make in developing our culture.” He went on, saying that “many people who think about reopening movie houses in Gaza are afraid that it would be attacked, burned and destroyed.”

Xinhua’s reporter mentioned in this regard that ”radical Islamic groups have carried out in the last several months a series of attacks against internet cafes, coffee shops and other entertainment sites in the Gaza Strip, claiming that these places are used to spread immoral principles among the young Palestinian generations.” He quoted the response of Osama el-Eassawi, the minister of culture for the Hamas government in Gaza, who conditioned the reopening of any of the closed Gaza movie houses upon respecting the laws and the traditions of the Islamic society by saying the following: “We support the art that respects the moral and religious traditions and cultures.”

The first and yet only movie produced by the Hamas government was Imad Aqel which was screened at the Islamic University of Gaza, in the absence of cinemas in the Gaza Strip. The movie tells the heroic story of the senior terrorist of Hamas, who established its military wing, and is held accountable for the killing of 13 Israeli soldiers and civilians. The film cost $120,000 and was written by Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas. Reuters’ reporter, Nidal al-Mughrabi, describes the reaction of Palestinian spectators who came in masses to watch the first movie ever to be screened under Hamas Islamic rule. “The audience in the Gaza Strip clapped and cheered as the actor delivered the movie’s most memorable line: “To kill Israeli soldiers is to worship God.” Majed Jendeya, the movie’s German-trained director, was quoted as saying that he hopes to screen the film at the Cannes festival in France. [3]

In conclusion, it is tremendously hard to comprehend how a huge group of Canadian artists are speaking with big words on human rights and at the same are silent on Hamas oppression of any free cultural activity, and even worse on its pursuance of nurturing a culture of death. I desperately want to believe that the Canadian artists were not familiar with the facts before signing the distorted statement.

Comment by samantha shephard — March 6th, 2010 @ 2:16 PM

in all the critiques towards the Artists Against Israeli Apartheid letter there has failed to be a concrete challenge to the facts outlined in the letter, as outlined below…

“Palestinian citizens face an entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation, resembling the defeated apartheid system in South Africa. A matrix of Israeli-only roads, electrified fences, and over 500 military checkpoints and roadblocks erase freedom of movement for Palestinians. Israel’s apartheid wall, which was condemned by the International Court of Justice in 2004, cuts through Palestinian lands, further annexing Palestinian territory and surrounding Palestinian communities with electrified barbed wire fences and a concrete barrier soaring eight meters high.

Gaza remains under siege. Israel continues to impose collective punishment on the 1.5 million Palestinians of Gaza, who still face chronic shortages of electricity, fuel, food and basic necessities as the campaign of military violence executed by the apartheid state of Israel endures. UN officials recently observed that the “situation has deteriorated into a full-fledged emergency because of the cut-off of vital supplies for Palestinians.” As a result of Israeli actions, Gaza has become a giant prison.”

concerning the reality of Israeli apartheid in Palestine, there is an excellent article written by the South African anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu, linked below…

I will repeat this for the anglophones: international solidarity with the Palestinians, and Tadamon is no exception, is carried out by people who are, of course, concerned by other causes throughout the world. Like many of the artists who signed the letter against israeli apartheid, Tadamon endorses many appeals that condemn injustice and oppression, wherever they stand. We fight for justice in Egypt and in Canada, in France and in Afghanistan, in Irak and in Tchetchnia… so why not Palestine?!

Though certainly contentious and far from unequivocal, one must by necessity have the courage to assume a moral position as regards the state of Israel’s (in collusion with the United State’s with the tacit support of the Canadian’s) treatment of the Palestinian people. Many of the comments posted on Tadamon explicate contingencies and nuances and though thoughtful and well-intentioned they nonetheless fail to respond to the irrefutable fact that the treatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank and particularly in Gaza is morally offensive and in terms of international law illegal.

Stating this does not in any way make other acts in other regions whether they are committed by so-called terrorists or by other governments less odious. All too often one hears, as a few of those who have commented have stated, that the reality on the ground in the Middle-East is so complex that no one can claim to fully understand let alone pass judgment. Within a certain context that is certainly true. What after all do a bunch of artists residing in Montreal know about all the idiosyncrasies of Middle-East politics? I suspect some know more than others. But, however valid that may be, it is besides the point; the point being that what we do know and not only have a right but an obligation to state openly and unequivocally is that the government of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is morally offensive and must stop.

It is with the deepest respect and admiration for the Jewish people that I feel compelled to name the government of Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians as a moral wrong. I know a considerable number of Israeli’s together with an increasing number of the international community of Jews both Zionist and non-Zionist would agree with this and are working hard to have their voice be heard. It is therefore equally odious to witness our own government’s attempt to stifle any debate in it’s McCathyesque effort to equate criticism of Israeli state policy with anti-Semitism. This is a frightening and again morally reprehensible precedent against which many more than 500 voices should and must be raised.

It is therefore with these considerations in mind (and many more besides for which the space here prohibits me from listing) that I willingly add my voice to the list of those who support doing whatever is necessary in a peaceful manner to coerce the state of Israel, together with those governments who support them, to raise themselves to a higher standard, to understand that an apartheid like solution will never be a solution only an unending misery for all concerned.

Dwight Smith, writer

Comment by dwight smith — March 10th, 2010 @ 12:41 PM

what a bunch of garbage signed by ignorant artists who obviously have no time to read anything but a senseless petition. If the people of gaza wanted anything resembling a productive life, they would not have destroyed everything israel left for them when they exited gaza,they would not let themselves be used as pawns by the arab world, and would have moved forward on their own with all the help in the world. Instead, they throw cement blocks, use their own people to blow themselves up (i hope they find the 70 virgins) and concentrate on revenge for the physical wars THEY start. After receiving years of rocks and bombs, what is Israel to do to defend itself? I will divest myself of any so-called art of these petitioners-most of whose names are unknown to me.

Greetings.
.
It occurs to me that the world does not know who are the Palestinians.
.
It goes like this:
.
The Canaanite civilization was comprised of dozens of city state like communities. Not unlike ancient Ireland or Scotland.
.
Enter into Canaan, the Jews with the beginnings of monothesim, from Eastern Arabia; likely, what is now called Iraq. Fleeing from what the Jews described as famine, they entered Egypt. The Egyptians welcomed them at first, yet if what Mark Twain declared, (paraphrase) Let us quote Genesis chapter 47, We’ve all heard of the years of plenty, and the years of famine in Egypt, and with that, Joesph and the Hebrews decided to make a corner in the markets. So, during the years of plenty, Joesph and the Hebrews bought up all the land to the last acre, all the livestock to the last hoof…all the wheat to the last bussel…This, contended Twain, was why the Egyptians enslaved the Jews.
.
Well, somehow, some of them escaped, not a million, it’s ridiculous, and found their way back to Canaan, monotheism shawdowing them. Monotheism began to be embraced by the Canaanites. A Canaanite peasantry revolt occurred, was successful, and the birth of Israel began.
.
Decades more than a thousand years later, while under the Roman ” occupation” (they didn’t like it), the Jews revolted and Jerusalem suffered the consequences. Not all of the Jews were killed or fled, however. Tens of thousands remained. Many had or were converting to Christianity, many weren’t.
.
Circa 170 CE: Roman Emporer Hadrian (Hadrian’s Wall – UK) renamed the region Palestine. Eventually many of the Jews, who were Christians as well, came to know themselves as Palestinians.
.
Circa 650 CE: Islam swept across the region and conversions ensued.
.
Circa 1948 CE: Zionism conquers Palestine. So, who are the Palestinians; who are the Zionists?
.
Circa, decades after the year one: Some Jews flee, some remain. The Jews that flee incorporate European, Russian and other DNA into their identity. The Jews that remain, largely come to know themselves as Palestinians.
.
Many of the Zionists are the decendants of the Jews, with additional, non indiginous DNA, who are descended from the original Canaanites. Their ancestors left, and they returned.
.
The Palestinians are largely the direct descendants of the original Jews, who were descended from the original Canaanites.
.
The Palestinians ancestors never left. Two, three, four thousand years of the same, indiginous people. The Canaanites became the Jews who became the Palestinians.
.
The Palestinians are the direct descendants of the original, indiginous people.

“…The Canadian artists blame Israel for intentionally harassing and bringing disaster to the peaceful Palestinian people during more than 60 years and fail to mention the word “terrorism” even once.

Their account of the historical events as they appear in the statement is to say the least distorted. One paragraph within the long list of “crimes” accuses Israel of deliberately oppressing the Palestinian cultural activity as follows:

“During the first and second intifadas, Israel invaded, ransacked, and even closed down cinemas, theatres and cultural centers in the occupied territories. These deliberate attempts to stifle the Palestinian cultural voice have failed and will continue to fail.” [1]

The five hundred Canadian artists virtually portray Israel as a pinnacle of human evil and their basic premise assumes, as it may be understood, that without Israeli “crimes,” the pluralist and liberal Palestinian culture in the Gaza Strip would be flourishing with cinemas, theatres and cultural centres.

This thesis has one little weakness. Not a single cinema house exists in the Gaza Strip and Hamas – NOT Israel – is responsible for “stifling the Palestinian cultural voice”. Saud Abu Ramadan, a Palestinian reporter working for the Chinese newswire Xinhua, published an article on July 26, 2009 reviewing the history of cinemas in the Gaza Strip while interviewing 57-year old Adnan Abu Beid, who used to run the most famous and biggest movie house in downtown Gaza city called al-Nasser, and today makes his living as a greengrocer. [2]

Abu Ramadan notes that “after Israel signed Oslo accords with the Palestinians, when the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was established after the Israeli army withdrew from Gaza city, al-Nasser movie house was reopened for a few months, but later it was burned and destroyed by angry Islamic Hamas demonstrators in 1995.” Abu Beid told Xinhua that after al-Nasser movie house was burned and destroyed, “I hid my film archives and decided to become a vegetable vendor.” He added that his archives “are the only that remained after all the movie houses had either shut down, or been destroyed by Hamas activists during demonstrations in Gaza city in 1995.”

By 1994, after the PNA was established, there were nine movie houses in the Gaza Strip, including al-Nasser, al-Samer, al-Jalaa’ and Amer in Gaza City, al-Khadra and al-Hamra in the city of Khan Younis and three other movie houses in the town of Rafah. However, Abu Beid said, “Nowadays, there is ignorance of movie houses and the contribution they could make in developing our culture.” He went on, saying that “many people who think about reopening movie houses in Gaza are afraid that it would be attacked, burned and destroyed.”

Xinhua’s reporter mentioned in this regard that ”radical Islamic groups have carried out in the last several months a series of attacks against internet cafes, coffee shops and other entertainment sites in the Gaza Strip, claiming that these places are used to spread immoral principles among the young Palestinian generations.” He quoted the response of Osama el-Eassawi, the minister of culture for the Hamas government in Gaza, who conditioned the reopening of any of the closed Gaza movie houses upon respecting the laws and the traditions of the Islamic society by saying the following: “We support the art that respects the moral and religious traditions and cultures.”

The first and yet only movie produced by the Hamas government was Imad Aqel which was screened at the Islamic University of Gaza, in the absence of cinemas in the Gaza Strip. The movie tells the heroic story of the senior terrorist of Hamas, who established its military wing, and is held accountable for the killing of 13 Israeli soldiers and civilians. The film cost $120,000 and was written by Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas. Reuters’ reporter, Nidal al-Mughrabi, describes the reaction of Palestinian spectators who came in masses to watch the first movie ever to be screened under Hamas Islamic rule. “The audience in the Gaza Strip clapped and cheered as the actor delivered the movie’s most memorable line: “To kill Israeli soldiers is to worship God.” Majed Jendeya, the movie’s German-trained director, was quoted as saying that he hopes to screen the film at the Cannes festival in France. [3]

In conclusion, it is tremendously hard to comprehend how a huge group of Canadian artists are speaking with big words on human rights and at the same are silent on Hamas oppression of any free cultural activity, and even worse on its pursuance of nurturing a culture of death. I desperately want to believe that the Canadian artists were not familiar with the facts before signing the distorted statement.

Comment by sg — June 14th, 2011 @ 10:32 AM

Is there any “artist” out there that is known outside of his(her) district?